Vietnam’s U23 team meets their fans in Saigon one week after returning home as runner-up at an Asian championship.
Fans approach as players of Vietnam’s U23 national football team walk from their bus to Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Street in District 1 on Sunday to pay tribute to the late President Ho Chi Minh. Many of them have failed to get the free tickets to join the fan meeting that takes place several hours later in District 10 so they managed to see their “idols” here.
The ceremony lasts 10 minutes before the players move to Thong Nhat Stadium in District 10 to meet their fans. Vietnam surprised football lovers and experts when it became the first Southeast Asian country to ever make it to the final of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U23 Championship on January 27.
Fans wave outside Thong Nhat Statdium as the bus of U23 Vietnam approaches. Many of them have waited for hours to get the free tickets for the meeting on Sunday afternoon.
Fans are seen inside the stadium. Though the Vietnamese team returned home as runner-up after losing the final match to Uzbekistan, what they performed during the tournament in China has won the hearts of millions of Vietnamese people.
Some fans at the stadium are Korean as it is Park Hang-seo, the South Korea head coach that has contributed a huge part to help the Vietnamese team go that far in the AFC U23 Cup this year.
Fan wait outside the stadium.
Girls cry as the players finally walk onto the stadium.
This little girl is full of spirit.
Most fans choose the tickets that allow them to stand in the field along with the players instead of on the bench. 25,000 tickets for this event have all found their owners and as the demand is so high, the organizer decided to open the stadium for all fans to come in.
Coach Park Hang-seo walks up to the stage. “We will have to try double,” he says.
Midfielder Quang Hai. He has won the best goal award of the AFC U23 Cup as decided by an online voting by AFC.
Luong Xuan Truong, the captain of the U23 team.
The team’s captain Truong answers fans’ questions at the event.
Fireworks mark the beginning of the singing performances.
Players sing “Niem tin chien thang” (We are the champions) with singer My Tam.
Finding what makes any group, or subset, of people tick is always a key piece of knowledge for any marketer, and with their emerging spending power and digital literacy, the members of Generation Z are now under the microscope.
There is, naturally enough, some disagreement about the age bracket of the generation that follows the millennials and members of Generation X before them. Generally, they were born between the second half of the 1990s and the mid-2000s, and are unique in that they have never really known a time before the advent of the internet.
In Vietnam, the members of Generation Z number more than 14 million or about one seventh of the country’s population. They are entering the workforce for the first time and exist in a world where the line between the physical and the digital is blurry at best.
A report from Ho Chi Minh City-based market research firm Decision Lab found, not surprisingly, that the online activities such a using social media, streaming movies and music, and chatting to friends using instant messaging apps were their favourite activities.
What was more unexpected was some of the flow on effects of the deep immersion in the digital world. For instance, only 30% of those surveyed said they felt more comfortable interacting with friends face-to-face, with half preferring to communicate via text message or chat apps. Another is the development of a visual-based language, with 47% saying they preferred to express their feeling or emotions using stickers or emojis.
There is a kind of online feedback loop that helps create a sense of identity and validates their lives. Gen Z in Vietnam use an average of 2.77 social media networks each week, and around half agreed that the number of likes a post received demonstrated their popularity and made them feel noticed.
Some of the assumptions about Gen Z, though, were upended by the results of the survey, with Decision Lab Founder Aske Ostergard admitting he was not expecting some of the results. “I was really surprised by how sceptical this generation is,” he said.
For while they derive the vast majority of their information from the internet, it seems Generation Z don’t have a lot of faith in what they are seeing and hearing there. In terms of sources that were trusted, parents and the advice of experts topped the list (72 %), while at the other end of the scale, online reviews were trusted by just 13%.
“One of the reasons [online reviews] seem not to work is it is easy to believe online reviews have been created by the brands,” Ostergard said. “The question is, how do you work out how to make those things trustworthy.”
Trying to bridge this disconnect presents quite a challenge for marketers. According to creative agency Dinosaur Vietnam CEO Sumesh Peringeth, who has work on numerous campaigns targeting Gen Z consumers, abandoning traditional approaches and working to gain a deep understanding of who brands are speaking to is the way forward.
“The idea here is about understanding subcultures. Instead of brands saying I am this and you come to me, it’s time for brands to understand the subcultures and specific groups they want to associate with and find ways to become part of it in a relevant way,” he said. “The influencer movements help a lot in this space at the moment, it’s a good way to begin the spread of an idea.”
Peringeth also said compelling content would always have an appeal, regardless of what platform it was viewed on, and that taking a collaborative approach resulted in more effective and relevant content.
“It begins with a data-lead approach that provides a solid insight for strategic creative direction, and then sharing it with content creators or influencers who can talk to specific subcultures and create appropriate content to distribute among their followers. This is one of the better ways for brands to engage with Gen Z,” he said.
A wide variety of colourful flowers blooming brightly in Sa Dec flower village in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap have been attracting a crowds of visitors as the Lunar New Year festival (Tet) draws near.
Covering an area of 20 hectares, Sa Dec flower village is one of the most attractive destinations for visitors as Tet draws near. Visitors can take photos and walk through gardens as well as buy flowers to decorate their houses for Tet.
Sa Dec is the largest flower mart in the western region, providing ornamental flowers to different regions nationwide. Since the beginning of December (lunar month), the village has been drawing a lot of visitors. Pictured is Sa Nhien Flower Road with a t
Chrysanthemum morifoliumare in full bloom before Tet due to the frequent rain.
Chrysanthemum morifolium pots are priced at VND160,000 for a pair.
This year, aside from flower gardens, the locality has also opened new destinations such as Happy Land Hung Thi and Cafe Lang Hoa for visitors to take photos.
A garden owner says a large number of visitors, and some French tourists flock to the village to take photos among the flowers.
Vietnamese people maintain a tradition of buying flowers for Tet.
The entrance to the flower gardens is free for all photo happy visitors.
Tet flowers are selling well this year, according to one florist.
“Many Vietnamese people don’t know anything about blockchain, but are still willing to pour millions of dollars into ICO (initial coin offering) ,” the founder of Vietnam Blockchain Developers Nguyen Sy Thanh Son said recently.
Son is Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Tomo and the founder of the first and biggest Vietnamese community of blockchain developers.
Son is also among one of the first Vietnamese who are teaching Smart Contract, the technology used in startups’ ICO projects in which many Vietnamese have invested.
Son said ‘fashionable’ and ‘technological’ word ICO is being used by many swindlers in Vietnam to disguise their behaviors of cheating unknowledgeable people.
“They even cannot understand contracts, but decide to pour money into ICOs,” he said.
Cryptocurrencies have seen prices skyrocketing in the market.
According to Son, only one percent of investors in ICOs in Vietnam have knowledge about business and technology.
Commenting about ICO projects, Son said there is a mixture of ‘dirty sand’ and ‘diamonds’.
Diamond refers to ICOs with long-term vision and the tokens they sell must be used in their products. ‘Dirty sand’ refers to selling tokens just for money, but tokens don’t represent their products and communities.
It appears to be easy to create an ICO or Smart Contract on Ethereum platform, which explains why so many ICOs have launched.
Son said that a qualified developer can create many tokens every day.
Mr. Nguyen Sy Thanh Son
However, he is optimistic about ICO and blockchain, believing there are startups “serious with tokens (while companies issue shares at IPO, startups sell tokens at ICO) and kind to investors”.
They are using blockchain to make big leaps to create new value for the society.
Son said that what is behind cryptocurrencies and ICOs is blockchain technology.
“A flat world, democracy, justice and transparency are what people lust for. And these are all matters which blockchain can bring,” he said, adding that the era of Internet of Value is coming, in which blockchain exists.
People trust blockchain and are willing to store their value on the internet.
Tran Huu Duc, director of FPT Ventures and Vietnam Innovative Startup Accelerator company and a board member of Fintech Vietnam Club, said on Dau Tu that blockchain technology is one of the most viral trends of the internet era. It has brought a considerable amount of opportunity to Vietnam, enabling it to grow into one of Southeast Asia’s blockchain hubs.
The fear and build up towards Aug.1,2017, and the creation of Bitcoin Cash which forked off the original chain was monumental. However, it was a damp squib for the future of Bitcoin as it actually spiked in value.
Since then, forks on Bitcoin have become almost as common as ICOs, and in fact, forks on the Bitcoin chain look to be the latest trend for 2018 as new companies look to cash in on the familiar Bitcoin name.
Already a forking mess
Bitcoin Cash is, of course, the most well-known Bitcoin fork out there, sitting comfortably in the top five coins in terms of market cap. However, in 2017, there were 19 registered Bitcoin forks. Still, that pales in comparison to the 50 that are expected this year, according to Lex Sokolin, global director of fintech strategy at Autonomous Research.
That number could still rise further as there is even services out there that are providing rudimentary programming skills to launch a clone. This will of course have a big effect in the cryptocurrency market as hedge fund manager Ari Paul predicted in a tweet:”Both BTC and BCH will continue to hard fork and >10% of the value of each (if held today) will reside in new offshoots”.
What the fork?
There are a number of reasons to fork off the Bitcoin Blockchain, some do it, in the case of Bitcoin Cash, to seemingly improve facets of the old coin, while others may have different motives. As George Kimionis, chief executive officer of Coinomi puts it:
“Unfortunately, most fork-based projects we see today are more of a sheer money grab. Looking back a few years from now we might realize that they were just mutations fostered by investors blinded by numerical price increases rather than honest attempts to contribute to the Blockchain ecosystem.”
Kimionis also sees a new phase in the ICO marketplace with the original hype simmered down somewhat. Forking adds a little edge to a new coin. And Rhett Creighton, who’s working on the upcoming Bitcoin Private fork, predicts: “Bitcoin forks are kind of the new altcoin. We are going to see now a bunch of Bitcoin forks. And they are going to start replacing some of the top hundred altcoins.”
Danger to the vision
It is hard to see these minor forks, even the likes of Bitcoin Gold and Diamond which reached the news, really, truly, adding much to the Blockchain environment. Even Bitcoin Cash has been linked to a money making scheme for the likes of Jihan Wu and Roger Ver. The difference between trying to improve the Blockchain, and to make money off a name, is a very blurred line.
Starbucks will open its first café in Da Nang City on February 3 to celebrate five years of its presence in Viet Nam.
Starbucks aims to expand its operations this year to Da Nang, the third-largest city in the country. The new store will be at 56 Bach Dang Street in Hai Chau District.
“We have been asked many times when Starbucks will set foot outside HCM City and Hanoi, and now is the time,” said Patricia Marques, general manager of Starbucks Vietnam, who hinted at more exciting plans of the coffee chain for 2018.
Starbucks has completed five years in Viet Nam on February 1. It opened its first shop in HCM City in February 2013 and currently runs 34 cafes in HCM City, Hanoi and Hai Phong.
To mark its five-year anniversary, Starbucks is offering special prices on its menu. Customers can buy any tall-sized beverage at VNĐ50,000 at any Starbucks café across the country. A Starbucks Rewards member can get five times of STARS earned while making any purchase.
Earlier this year, Starbucks announced the return of the Starbucks Reserve® Da Lat coffee after it was first introduced in 2016.
Vietnam Da Lat coffee has a strong flavour, with a hint of sweetness, and is reminiscent of coffee flavours found in Central America.
“Vietnam Da Lat is a popular coffee and is versatile with many brewing methods. It’s great both as brewed coffee in the morning or as delicious espresso, and we are excited by its return,” Patricia said
Commercial banks say that people are converting dollar into dong and investing dong in securities.
Vietnam’s forex reserves reached a record high of $54.5 billion last week as announced by the State Bank Governor. Just within two weeks, the central bank bought $2.5 billion, adding to the reserve.
Commercial banks confirmed that the foreign currency supply is plentiful with the supply not only from foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign portfolio investment, but also from businesses and the public. Selling dollars to get dong to invest in securities is the choice of many people.
“People no longer want to keep dollars as the State Bank has curbed the dollar interest rate at zero percent, while the dong/dollar exchange rate has been stable,” said deputy CEO of a HCMC-based bank.
“The VN Index has increased by nearly 50 percent,” he explained, noting that there is a large gap between the zero percent profit expected from dollar deposits and the 50 percent profit expected from securities investment.
The banker said that savings are flowing into the stock market. It is not yet a strong flow, but a growing tendency.
The total deposits at banks, according to an SBV report, has exceeded VND5,500 trillion. If just one percent of the amount of money, or VND55 trillion, heads for stocks, the VN Index will reach a record high.
One percent of savings flowing into securities is likely to happen. While deposits are getting less profitable, profit from securities investments is very encouraging.
Therefore, analysts believe that the plan by SSC to raise the required margin ratio from 50 percent to 60 percent won’t affect the capital flow to the stock market.
An SSC report showed that the total margin loans of the market had reached VND38 trillion by the end of 2017, much smaller than the market scale which is just equal to 0.69 percent of total capital mobilized by banks.
The market size has expanded weekly thanks to the sharp increase in the number of newly listed companies, while liquidity has also increased weekly.
HOSE is coming closer to the daily transaction volume of 400-500 million units and trading value of $500 million. If the current situation is maintained, analysts say, it is quite possible that the Vietnamese stock market would be exceptionally upgraded from frontier into emerging this year.
Foreign investors’ net purchase value has reached VND4.482 trillion after the first two weeks of 2018.
The recovery period of the stock market began last year. However, the VN Index still has not bounced back to the 1,170 point peak set in March 2007.
Foreign e-commerce retailers are dominating Vietnamese firms through ad campaigns, delivery services and money collection services.
Foreign companies took full advantage of the year-end occasion to showcase their financial potential. As always, Lazada Vietnam was a retailer that triggered the 2017 year-end shopping season.
With a goal of increasing sales by five times compared with ordinary days, Lazada Vietnam offered to sell 150,000 product items at preferential prices on November 9-11. One month later, it organized an event called a ‘revolution in online shopping’, offering big discounts for products and free deliveries.
Shopee, a Lazada’s big rival from Singapore, launched a program called Super Sale. On December 12-14, Flash Sale was applied to hundreds of product items, while bank card holders enjoyed another 10-20 percent discount.
Online Fever, applied throughout South East Asia, was the campaign launched by Zalora, a fashion product online retailer.
Adayroi and Tiki, the two Vietnamese retailers, also ran sale promotion programs in mid-December.
In order to prepare for the year’s most important sale season, Lazada Vietnam put four new order taking centers into operation.
In 2017, Lazada Vietnam for the first time applied a 50 percent discount reduction program to sellers.
Analysts said that its offering free delivery for buyers and cutting required discount for sellers was a move to compete with Shopee Vietnam, which has been growing rapidly though it joined the market two years ago.
Players with powerful capital
Analysts say that the Vietnamese e-commerce market bears strong influences from foreign players who have powerful financial capability.
Under SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis model, the challenges in joining industries are mentioned as an important factor.
Meanwhile, the war between Lazada Vietnam and Shopee Vietnam, according to analysts, are generating big barriers for domestic firms.
While Lazada Vietnam creates barriers when spending big money on ad campaigns to attract users, Shopee Vietnam focuses on supporting delivery and money collection services.
Although both companies did not disclose the amount of money they spend on advertising and shipping in Vietnam, experts in the e-commerce industry can estimate.
Analysts estimated that Shopee spends tens of billions of dong every day.
To compete with foreign giants, Vietnamese firms need support from foreign investors.
In the latest news, JD, the biggest rival of Alibaba in China, has reached an agreement on investing in Vietnam’s Tiki.
Bui Tien Dung reportedly signed a commercial deal with a PR company without the consent of his club, which already owns the rights to his likeness.
The goalkeeper of Vietnam’s U23 football team, the country’s heroes after a historic run at the Asian football championship, has allegedly contracted with a local PR firm to sell the rights to his likeness for commercial purposes, upsetting his club, which already owns his personality rights.
Bui Tien Dung was one of the biggest stars emerging after Vietnam’s second place finish at the 2018 AFC U23 Championship late last month thanks to both his talent and his looks.
The 23-year-old goalie now has 2.6 million followers on his verified Facebook account, a surge from only a few hundred thousand before the competition in China, where Vietnam lost 1-2 to Uzbekistan in extra time in a memorable snowy finale.
On Wednesday, a photo surfaced on Facebook of a price list issued by a local PR company to have Dung appear in ads and publicity campaigns.
The company claims to have signed a contract with Dung to exploit his likeness.
Image rights, or personality rights, refer to the privilege of using someone’s image, name, voice, signature, or any other unique characteristics, for commercial purposes.
Athletes and celebrities can sign away their image rights through sponsorship and endorsement deals in order to leverage maximum value from their likeness.
According to the Facebook photo, advertisers must pay US$10,000 for the goalkeeper to attend an event or a photo shoot.
The prices to have him mention a brand in a Facebook post or livestream session are US$2,500 and $5,000, respectively.
Restaurants or stores are required to pay $5,000 to have him check-in at their venue.
The price list also states that Dung is available to serve as a brand ambassador for a one-year contract worth $123,750.
The photo had caused a stir on social media before the goalie’s club, FLC Thanh Hoa, asserted in an official press release on Thursday that any agreements between Dung and the PR company are invalid as they were made without the consent of the football club.
“Tien Dung is currently a player of FLC Thanh Hoa and is therefore prohibited from signing deals with any organizations or individuals involving his publicity,” the club said.
“All activities involving the image of any FLC Thanh Hoa player, including keeper Bui Tien Dung, are managed by the club.
“Players are only allowed to appear in ads run by partners that have reached agreements with the club.”
Image rights, or personality rights, refer to the privilege of using someone’s image, name, voice, signature, or any other unique characteristics, for commercial purposes.
Athletes and celebrities can sign away their image rights through sponsorship and endorsement deals in order to leverage maximum value from their likeness.
According to the Facebook photo, advertisers must pay US$10,000 for the goalkeeper to attend an event or a photo shoot.
The prices to have him mention a brand in a Facebook post or livestream session are US$2,500 and $5,000, respectively.
Restaurants or stores are required to pay $5,000 to have him check-in at their venue.
The price list also states that Dung is available to serve as a brand ambassador for a one-year contract worth $123,750.
The photo had caused a stir on social media before the goalie’s club, FLC Thanh Hoa, asserted in an official press release on Thursday that any agreements between Dung and the PR company are invalid as they were made without the consent of the football club.
“Tien Dung is currently a player of FLC Thanh Hoa and is therefore prohibited from signing deals with any organizations or individuals involving his publicity,” the club said.
“All activities involving the image of any FLC Thanh Hoa player, including keeper Bui Tien Dung, are managed by the club.
“Players are only allowed to appear in ads run by partners that have reached agreements with the club.”
Hoai said these requirements are clearly stated in the contracts the football club signs with its players, but Dung, as with many other footballers, might not have read the terms and conditions carefully and therefore could have “made a mistake.”
“Some businesses seem to be trying to take advantage of Tien Dung and he appears to be the victim in this incident due to his lack of understanding,” he said.
“We will do everything needed to protect Tien Dung and his image.”
FLC Thanh Hoa, based in the namesake province in northern Vietnam, fished second at the 2017 V-League 1, the country’s top-flight football competition.
Much of that growth is due to the surge in super rich individuals living in the country.
Vietnam’s emergence as a global manufacturing hub has helped it top a list of countries ranked by wealth growth over the past 10 years.
Wealth in Vietnam grew 210 percent between 2007 and 2017, and the country’s wealth market is predicted to continue growing another 200 percent in the next 10 years, according to a report by market research company New World Wealth and interpreted by Visual Capitalist.
Much of that growth is due to the surge in ultra high net worth individuals living in the country, defined as people with investable assets of at least $30 million, excluding personal assets and property such as a primary residence, collectibles and consumer durables.
Vietnam’s ultra-rich population is growing faster than any other economy in the world, and is on track to continue leading that growth over the next decade, based on new international research.
The Wealth Report by the independent U.K. real estate consultancy Knight Frank found there are 200 ultra high net worth individuals (UHNWI) in Vietnam
This super rich group rose by 320 percent between 2000 and 2016, the fastest in the world compared to India’s 290 percent and China’s 281 percent, the report said.
The number is expected to continue rising to 540, or by 170 percent, in 2026, the highest growth rate in the world. Millionaires in Vietnam are expected to jump to 38,600 from 14,300 over the same period.
Andrew Amoils, head of research at global wealth intelligence and market research firm New World Wealth, highlighted Vietnam as the market where “stellar” growth rate is set to reinforce “dramatic growth” of the super-rich population in Asia.
“We expect Vietnam’s millionaire numbers to be boosted by strong growth in the local healthcare, manufacturing and financial services sectors,” Amoils was quoted in the report as saying.
It also cited World Bank remarks as describing the Vietnamese economy’s “remarkable” transformation over the last 25 years, with economic and political reforms translating into higher incomes. The bank has projected average GDP growth in Vietnam of around 6 percent annually until 2020.
China saw the second highest wealth growth over the past 10 years in the world. The number of UHNWIs in China rose by 281 percent between 2000 and 2016.
The city wants to shift 20,000 shanty houses, but the estimated cost is almost $2 billion.
It’s been almost two years since Ho Chi Minh City unveiled a plan to remove 20,000 shanty houses from along its canals, but work has stalled in the southern metropolis due to a serious lack of investment.
The city needs a further VND22 trillion ($970 million) to cover the total cost, which is estimated at VND44.1 trillion, Deputy Chairman Tran Vinh Tuyen told a conference held on Thursday to call for private investment.
“The problem has been a headache for the city for years. The city aims to resettle the 20,000 households by 2020, so we urgently need private investment,” he said.
Tran Trong Tuan, director of the city’s construction department, said the city has removed 36,000 shanty houses from along its canals over the past two decades, and most of the remaining structures now are in districts 8, 7 and Binh Thanh.
The city plans to spend VND22.4 trillion from its own budget to remove nearly 14,400 slums from along small canals that do not have high commercial value and are unattractive to investors.
The sum includes the cost to resettle those families in 52 condo projects.
It will need around VND22 trillion more from investors for the other 8,000 shanty houses.
“Investors will be permitted to use either the land along the canals or other ideal locations around the city for their businesses,” said Tuan.
HCMC’s Party chief Nguyen Thien Nhan said the city will invite experts from Japan and South Korea with experience in urban refurbishment to work with the city on the project.
Slums along a dark canal in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran
In November last year, HCMC started implementing a master plan to transform the southern metropolis into a “smart city” by 2020, but local residents don’t seem to be too enthusiastic.
The move followed a legislative decision to give the city more decision-making power to boost its development, including authority over land management, investment and public spending.
The goal of this ambitious plan is to solve the problems currently facing the city, including rapid population growth, unsustainable economic growth, inadequate forecasting, planning and management, poor health, education and transport, pollution and weak public administration.
It will focus on creating a better living environment.
According to the plan, HCMC’s residents will gain access to low-cost power, convenient public transport, good healthcare services and schools, fresh air, clean water and diverse recreational activities, while being guaranteed a low crime rate.
The “smart city” plan will also allow the municipal government to make the best use of its resources, thereby improving the quality of services for its people and future generations.
The plan seems to be painting HCMC as some kind of utopia, but its residents are skeptical.
When the plan was first announced last November, it received cynical reactions as readers called it macroscopic and unfeasible.
A television channel targeting children in Vietnam has been hit by a storm of criticism from animal lovers after airing an episode introducing dog meat as a traditional Vietnamese dish.
The controversial episode broadcast on Tuesday night during the “Viet Nam dat nuoc toi yeu” (Vietnam, my loving country) program on HTV3, a children and family channel run by Ho Chi Minh City Television.
The program explores Vietnamese culture and lifestyle through the perspective of foreigners living in the country.
Tuesday’s episode followed South Korean host Kim Kwang-Sik as he joined two Vietnamese friends for dog meat in neighborhoods famous for the dish in District 8, Ho Chi Minh City.
“Vietnamese people often eat dog meat on rainy days. This enticing and affordable cuisine has long become a familiar sight on local dining tables,” the episode’s narrator said.
The hosts enjoyed a meal of grilled dog meat and Vietnamese rice wine while explaining the nutritious value of the dish and the differences between South Korea and Vietnam when it comes to preparing dog meat.
“Dog meat is rich in protein, so South Koreans often eat it during the summer to replenish their energy in the hot weather,” the South Korean host told his friends in Vietnamese.
Viewers quickly took to social media to lambast the television channel for advocating for the consumption of dog meat, the majority of which is sourced from stolen dogs raised as pets in local families.
“Dogs are friends, not food” could be seen in a screenshot of a comment left on HTV3’s official Facebook page and posted to a group for dog lovers.
“How can they be laughing while feasting upon other people’s pets? They are even worse than animals,” another commented.
HTV3 has not issued a public apology for the episode, though they have reportedly apologized to individuals who have messaged them on Facebook and pledged to remove the controversial content from future broadcasts, according to screen grabs shared across social media.
An estimated five million dogs are slaughtered for food every year, many of which are stolen family pets and illegally-sourced dogs from neighboring countries, according to statistics by the Asia Canine Protection Association.
Violence to the point of brutality against dog thieves is not uncommon in Vietnam and animal rights activists have been calling for an end to dog eating, though their efforts have yet to produce noticeable results and the issue remains a controversial topic in Vietnam.
More than 10 convenience store brands in the central business district in HCMC are in a competition to secure retail premises in advantageous positions.
The locations near residential quarters, traditional markets, schools and office buildings are being hunted by retailers who are rushing to expand their convenience store networks.
Since the opening of its first store in mid-2017, 7-Eleven has opened 11 stores located in districts 1, 2, 7 and Binh Thanh, near office buildings and high-end residential quarters.
The retail chain is continuing to seek retail premises in all districts. An ad says 7-Eleven will pay VND40 million a month in rent for small premises and VND90-120 million for large premises. The premises must be at least 8 meters wide and 30 meters long.
“The retail premises in CBDs and localities with high population density are getting very scarce and the rent has been escalating,” said Nguyen Thi Hong Trang, CEO of GS25 Vietnam, which made its debut in HCMC on January 19.
Yun Ju Young from GS25 Vietnam also commented that retail premises rent is the costliest expense for investors who want to join the Vietnamese convenience store market. He said GS25 anticipated that it won’t make a profit or even take a loss in the first three years of operation in Vietnam.
An analyst commented that GS25 has great advantages joining the Vietnamese market because it is backed by a big real estate firm – Son Kim Land, which holds 70 percent of capital of SG25 Vietnam. The remaining 30 percent is held by South Korean GS25.
Son Kim Land created favorable conditions for GS25 stores to open. A Son Kim fashion shop on Truong Dinh street in district 3, HCMC, has been replaced by a convenience store.
Vinmart+, with powerful financial capability, also is competing fiercely for retail premises in many cities and provinces.
In December 2017 alone, it opened more than 100 stores in 11 cities/provinces. It is estimated that 3 Vinmart+ stores open a day. The brand now has 1,000 stores and is seen everywhere in HCMC.
More convenience stores have opened in Vietnam as retailers have been expanding their networks.
On a short section of road, several hundreds of meters long, several convenience stores can be seen. Bui Thi Xuan street, for example, has three convenience store brands – Circle K, Family Mart and B’s Mart.
Even the newcomers whose names are still unfamiliar to Vietnamese, such as GS25 and Toromart, also have ambitious plans to open thousands of stores. The former plans to have 50 stores this year, while the latter wants 200.
Recent changes cut time spent on the site by some 50 million hours per day.
Facebook on Wednesday reported earnings that beat expectations, but shares swung as it stressed the goal of prioritizing personal interactions among users over the time they spend on the world’s biggest social network.
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg said changes cut time spent on the site by some 50 million hours per day, but its chief operating officer argued that having users engage more with friends’ posts could lead to further financial opportunities for the company.
“Helping people connect is more important than maximizing the time they spend on Facebook,” Zuckerberg said during an earnings call.
“We can make sure the service is good for people’s well-being and for society overall.”
He said that in the last couple of years, content from viral videos or posts by businesses have grown to a point where it is “crowding out the connections people value most.”
Facebook is giving posts from friends and family priority over content that is not as likely to engender genuine personal interactions, according to Zuckerberg.
“We made changes to show fewer viral videos to make sure people’s time is well spent,” Zuckerberg said.
“In total, we made changes that reduced time spent on Facebook by roughly 50 million hours every day.”
Chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg contended that getting people to engage with more posts by friends actually ramped up opportunities for the social network to make money.
Facebook shares dove more than four percent after the figures were released, but regained the lost ground and even rose a bit to $189.30 in after-market trades that followed an earnings call with executives.
Facebook said that profit in the final three months of last year climbed 20 percent to $4.26 billion as ad revenue and ranks of members grew.
Revenue in the quarter leapt 47 percent to nearly $13 billion, but expenses also rose as its ranks of employees grew to finish the year at 25,105 workers.
Facebook said the number of monthly active users hit 2.13 billion in the past quarter, up 14 percent from a year ago.
Focusing on ‘community’
Facebook said it set aside an additional $2.27 billion for taxes on profits to be repatriated from overseas, taking advantage of a lower rate in a recently approved U.S. fiscal overhaul.
Analysts have been cautious about Facebook as it revamps its News Feed as part of an effort to curb misinformation and focus on updates from friends and family, which are highlighted over advertisements, celebrity and media posts in a recently-introduced update.
The company cast the latter changes as part of a refocus on “community” – prioritizing social interactions and relationships.
“2017 was a strong year for Facebook, but it was also a hard one,” Zuckerberg said.
“In 2018, we’re focused on making sure Facebook isn’t just fun to use, but also good for people’s well-being and for society.”
He cited research indicating that interacting meaningfully with friends or family improves happiness and health, which is not the case with passively viewing videos or news stories.
Facebook this week announced it will deliver more local news to U.S. users, and announced earlier this month that it will ask its two billion users to rank their trust in news sources as part of an effort to combat the spread of misinformation.
The changes come as the online giant seeks to address charges that it has failed – along with Google and Twitter – to prevent the spread of false news, especially ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Recent changes at Facebook include a new “trusted sources” ranking intended to “make sure the news you see is high quality” and to foster “a sense of common ground” rather than sow division, Zuckerberg previously said.
Known for annual personal goals ranging from killing his own food to learning Chinese, Zuckerberg’s stated mission for this year is to “fix” the social network.
“I think his heart is in the right place; that he is trying to do the right thing,” analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group said of Zuckerberg.
“But, he is between a rock and a hard place.”
Facebook has also been moving to expand from its core social network to grow the image-sharing service Instagram, while ramping up the capabilities of its Messenger and WhatsApp services. It is also stepping up its efforts in virtual reality with its Oculus hardware unit.
Do Ngoc Olivier Dung affirms that mid-end condo segment has the most potential and will become the largest segment in the Vietnam property market.
EZ Land is a real estate developer operating under the Affordable Housing Fund, SLP (previously called Key SICAV SIF), an international investment fund from Luxembourg. With a strong capital base from Europe, the developer is targeting the mid-income segment in Ho Chi Minh City. Its first project, HausNeo, is located in District 9 with a total investment of over $25 million. Do Ngoc Olivier Dung, CEO of EZ Land, shares his opinion on the mid-income segment and homebuyers in Vietnam.
Together with local real estate companies, many international investors are also targeting the mid-income market, creating fierce competition. Knowing that to be the situation, why did you decide to target this segment?
I started investing in Vietnam in the luxury hospitality sector; however, after 10 years of living here, in addition to our expertise regarding similar markets in other countries, I believe that we have the local knowledge now to understand consumers in the mid- income segment which has explosive growth potential and will become the largest segment in Vietnam.
Nowadays, young Vietnamese people are more active and independent. They want to live their lives in their own way and have their own homes. A good opportunity to enter the mid-income market is to provide properties that meet these demands yet remain affordable.
What strategies do foreign invested companies like EZ Land adopt to compete with experienced local rivals?
This segment has mostly been a playground for well established local developers, so this is the most challenging segment to thrive in. However, we have our own advantages. First and foremost, as a European Fund, we havea very strong capital base and financial capability..
Our second advantage lies in our unique architectural style and interior design. We go beyond familiar and common architecture and choose a European inspired style – Bauhaus. Our philosophy is to build houses that provide comfort to their owners. We do this by optimizing living spaces and reducing redundant details, which results in a more spacious feeling than other comparable projects. On top of that, we also assure buyers of the overall quality of the building and of the apartment interior.
How can EZ Land’s strong capital flow support homebuyers?
Strong capital flow allows us to offer flexible payment schemes to homebuyers. For instance, with HausNeo – a mid-market project in District 9 – buyers are only required to pay up to 47 percent upon handover.
More specifically, for a 2-bedroom apartment at HausNeo, the buyers initially deposit VND 450 million. During the construction period of 15 months, a repayment of 1 percent is then made, approximately VND15 millionper month. As such, buyers pay only a total of 47 percent by handover time. As we typically attract young urban white collar workers, and 25 – 30 years old, usually married, the average household income typically ranges from VND 30-40 million/month so, this payment scheme works well for them but also for many other buyers categories that do not fall within those typical criterias. Two years later when HausNeo hands over the apartments, buyers can easily borrow from local banks the remaining amount if needed but also by that time they would generally have seen their incomes increase and managed to put aside more savings. .
How does a HausNeo 2-bedroom apartment (priced at VND 1.4 Billion) stand out from comparable products?
‘Affordable price – comfortable life’ – this is the investment opportunity that HausNeo offers to our customers. The project is affordable due to cost optimization, without compromising on quality. For example, we chose District 9 instead of locations closer to the CBD, where it would be a lot more expensive. Land prices in District 9 are still reasonable, and there is rapidly developing infrastructure. In addition, District 9 is now attracting many young white-collar people who want to settle down in up and coming new urban areas.
On top of that, at HausNeo we offer fully furnished kitchens with upper and lower cabinets and fully furnished bathrooms. The living rooms are spacious enough for the sofa to be placed at a reasonable distance from the television, and our doors are sound-proofed for more security and privacy.
We use leading Vietnamese and regional (Thailand) suppliers, along with imported products. We also work with COFICO, one of the top 3 contractors in Ho Chi Minh City, whose reputation has been built mostly in luxury projects. The contractor is known for its quality, professionalism and to only cooperates with international and top local real estate developers, making this the first mid-market project that COFICO has ever built in the city.
For property investors, they know that District 9 is developing rapidly, with land prices potentially rising, so a quality apartment in the center of District 9 like HausNeo is profitable for their portfolios and also is very likely to yield superior rental returns to other market segments along with future capital gains.
What are EZ Land’s long-term plans after HausNeo?
After HausNeo, we will continue with the second and the third project with the same brand philosophy. The key is to source land plots that are suitable for 500 to 600-unit projects minimum to optimize construction costs and maintain a certain project scale, while being able to offer mutually beneficial contracts for suppliers and best value for homebuyers.
In the long run, our mission is to become one of the leading developers in the mid-market segment. The company will launch 1,500 – 2,500 apartments in 2018 and targets 4,000 apartments in 2019 and therefore aspires to become a platform to attract even more foreign investors to the residential market in Vietnam.
